Reinventing the Wheel

Building something that’s never existed before is hard work. There’s no instruction manual and even if there was, it might call for parts that have never been made. That’s not a problem if you believe every single piece of your solution has to be something no one has ever seen before. Who says you have to reinvent the wheel?

Elon Musk didn’t create Tesla Motors and its gorgeous electric vehicles from scratch. In fact, he didn’t even start the company – although no one will argue that it’s a good thing he used his money from the sale of PayPal to invest in Tesla and join the board of directors as its chairman.

Elon did what any smart person would do when it comes to pushing an idea into reality. He decided what really did need to be created because it didn’t exist – versus what simply could be repurposed.

The Tesla Roadster uses a chassis built by Lotus, and battery technology that was developed by AC Propulsion. Mr. Musk and his team knew that utilizing existing pieces of the puzzle in order to build something otherwise entirely new was the way to push through the obstacles of the “we don’t have the parts” conundrum. The only downside was a lower profit margin – but only at first. The upside: getting to market quickly. Or as Seth Godin would say, “Ship it!”

Musk and crew saved their creativity for something more important: A true act of creation. What makes Tesla unique is the concept of how we purchase the vehicles Tesla makes.

We’re reinventing the way people get automotive service at Changelane. As innovative as we believe our solution is, some parts of it didn’t have to be created from scratch. The only thing requiring that would have been ego, and nothing kills creation more efficiently. If you don’t have to invent it, why should you? After all, it may be impossible to improve upon the wheel.